PREPARATION (PART 1)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.

He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.

One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”

Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked.

The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”

When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.

Acts 10:1-8

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When I was leading in the military for so many years, I had a saying I used regularly as it applied to carrying out tasks. It went like this:

“Completing tasks is 99% preparation, 1% execution.”

The point was simple.

Preparation matters and so if we had ceremonies we needed to carry out, we practiced and prepared until everyone was comfortable with carrying out their parts. Then when it came to actually doing the ceremony, all a person had to do was repeat what they had practiced and usually things would go off without a hitch.

As we get set to do the work the Lord wants us to do in His name, we often find the preparation and then execution model fits well.

He didn’t send His disciples to go and do His work right away. Rather, He prepared them over a three year period, training them well so they could carry on His work seamlessly after He died, was resurrected, and then ascended. And after that happened and the disciples received the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem at Pentecost, they got to work sharing the good news, healing the lame and sick, and driving out demons, all in the name of Jesus, the One who had prepared them to execute His Gospel plan.

With this in mind, we turn to the tenth chapter of Acts and see how initial preparation led to the execution of the will and way of the Lord, just as He intended.

We start in the port city of Caesarea which was located about two days travel to the north of Joppa where Peter was staying at the home of a tanner named Simon (Acts 9:43).

We read about a Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius. He carried the title “centurion” because he commanded up to 100 men and in this case, they were a part of the Italian Regiment. A regiment was also referred to as a “cohort” and a cohort consisted of ten centuries.

Of interest, the Bible doesn’t focus as much on Cornelius’ position with the Roman army as it does his position with God. For the scriptures tell us that “he and all his family were devout and God-fearing”, “praying to God regularly”. Cornelius was also selfless, giving “generously to those in need”.

As I read this, I was reminded of another God believer we studied recently in Acts 8, the Ethiopian eunuch who was traveling home to Gaza after worshiping in Jerusalem. You’ll recall he was a devout God believer who was reading words from the prophet Isaiah regarding Jesus while riding along in his chariot. An angel of the Lord dispatched Philip to the same road the man was traveling and they engaged with Philip explaining the scriptures and sharing the Gospel. The end result was the Ethiopian official coming to Christ and being baptized.

Back to our passage for today where we find Cornelius suddenly having a vision of an angel of God who called out for him by name. His eyes fearfully fixated on the angel, Cornelius asks:

“What is it, Lord?”

To which the angel replied:

“Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”

Cornelius had pleased God with his generosity and philanthropy. The centurion’s goodness had not just helped the poor but served as a “memorial offering” unto God. The Lord is always pleased when we honor and glorify Him by being good stewards of what He has provided. The angel wanted Cornelius to know that God was happy with his servant’s actions.

The angel also had a task for Cornelius. For we read where he was to send men to Joppa where they were to locate a man named Simon Peter. They would find him staying at the home of a tanner who also bore the name of Simon. And so after the angel departed, Cornelius did as he was asked and sent two servants and one of his soldiers to Joppa.

He didn’t know why. He didn’t ask why. He was just obedient to what the Lord asked him to do.

As we will see, all this was part of the preparation phase for what the Lord was planning to do and as you can see clearly right now, both Cornelius and Peter would play key roles in that plan. Tomorrow, we’ll see how the Lord was also preparing Peter on his end in Joppa.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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